New reporting shows that Sean Duffy, who Donald Trump recently appointed to be the transportation secretary, has been improperly using campaign funds – potentially breaking campaign finance laws.
Bloomberg Government: Trump Pick Duffy Dipped Into Old Campaign Cash to Pay Ritz Tabs
Kate Ackley
11/25/24
Key Sections:
- Sean Duffy, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for transportation secretary, tapped his old campaign funds to pay expenses to the Ritz-Carlton, raising questions of whether he ran afoul of campaign finance rules.
- Duffy, a former GOP congressman, held $2.1 million in his principal campaign committee as of Oct. 16, money that he has drawn on since leaving office in 2019, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis of Federal Election Commission documents. Duffy for Wisconsin, his campaign committee, disclosed paying the Ritz-Carlton more than $5,700 in March for what it described as “travel,” $2,800 in 2021, and $3,300 in 2020, FEC records show.
- While ex-lawmakers regularly and legally use their old campaign money to make political and charitable donations, other payments, including to the luxury hotel chain, may raise questions about potential violations of the prohibition of the use of such money for personal expenses, some campaign finance lawyers and ethics watchdogs said. Even in cases where the FEC has found wrongdoing, fines are the typical penalty.
- Duffy’s campaign committee also used money, since he left office, to donate to lawmakers and candidates, including to senators who would vote on his confirmation to the Cabinet post.
- The campaign reported paying Google-owned Nest Labs Inc. $230 in 2022 for “residential security” and subsequent regular payments to Google. The campaign wrote in a message to the FEC last year that the “disbursement to Nest Labs was for an automatically recurring security services subscription, initiated while Mr. Duffy was a federal officeholder and candidate” but then canceled the subscription. The regular payments to Google were for “maintenance of the Committee’s web domain,” the campaign’s treasurer, Michael Masterson, wrote to the FEC.
- The Duffy campaign has also paid for annual holiday cards sent to political supporters, according to the memo.
- Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, a campaign finance overhaul group that aligns with Democrats, said the expenditures raised concerns about Duffy’s selection to lead the Transportation Department.
- “If Sean Duffy can’t resist the urge to use his old campaign account as a personal slush fund, how can he be trusted to manage the Department of Transportation’s budget with integrity?” Muller said in an email. “His judgment is compromised and his ethics are questionable.”
- Duffy was registered to lobby for clients in the investment and banking industry, including Gramercy Funds Management LLC and S&P Global, according to lobbying disclosure filings. He and other BGR lobbyists represented Partnership for Open Skies, which paid the firm $70,000 in 2020, according to disclosures.
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